December 2012 And 2012 Year End Large Luxury Car Sales And Large Luxury SUV Sales In America

The Mercedes-Benz S-Class Was The
Best-Selling Large Luxury Car In America In 2012

2012 Large Luxury Car Sales Chart
Click Any Chart For Larger View

For Lexus, using its big LS sedan to outsell the flagship sedans from Europe hasn’t turned out to be all that successful a plan in the last couple years. December 2012 was different, however, as sales of the $71,990 Lexus LS were significantly better than that of Mercedes-Benz’s S-Class… but still below those of the BMW 7-Series.

At the end of the year, it was the Mercedes-Benz S-Class that once again claimed the title as America’s favourite big luxury car. Sales of the S-Class were down, however. That wasn’t an uncommon theme in the segment in 2012. BMW 7-Series sales dropped 2% as the 6-Series Gran Coupe likely stole some sales toward the end of the year. Jaguar XJ sales dropped 7%, and the aforementioned Lexus LS slid 13%. Even the gains produced by the Porsche Panamera and Audi A8 were well below the overall industry’s 13.4% improvement.

December 2012 Large
Luxury Car Sales Chart

Again, December was a good month for those in America who sold the largest and most expensive luxury car sales. The Audi A8 had its best month of the year. BMW’s 6-Series cracked 1000 units for the first time in 2012. December was the 7-Series’ second-best U.S. sales month of 2012 and the fourth-best sales month in the last three years. Lexus sold more LS sedans in November, but December was the LS’s third-best sales month in the last three years.

2012 Large Luxury SUV Sales Chart

As far as large luxury SUVs go, don’t read too far into the Land Rover Range Rover’s year end year-over-year decline. For one thing, Range Rover sales in 2011 were rather strong, stronger than they’d been since 2007. And rather obviously, December marks the beginning of a rather likely Range Rover resurgence, as the fourth-generation SUV is sure to attract plenty of attention from those who seek to buy (by which I mean lease) an expensive luxury SUV. Range Rover sales in December 2012 were stronger than they’d been since March 2011.

The Infiniti QX56 outsold the regular-wheelbase Cadillac Escalade in 2012. After outselling the Lincoln Navigator in 2010 and 2011, the long-wheelbase Cadillac Escalade ESV struggled a bit in 2012 and did not accomplish that feat. Sales of the Lexus LX570 and Toyota Land Cruiser are rising quickly (in comparison to what the LX and Land Cruiser managed last year) but they remain low-volume SUVs in a surprisingly high-volume segment.

December 2012 Large
Luxury SUV Sales Chart

The Mercedes-Benz GL-Class remains the volume king among large SUVs. Sales rose 4% this year to 26,042, just shy of the GL’s all-time best year of 2007.

Looking for the Hyundai Equus or Cadillac XTS or Porsche Cayenne or Audi Q7? They’re posted alongside vehicles in other segments, with “midsize” luxury cars and “midsize” luxury SUVs, names which mean little but do offer some definition. You can always find the sales figures for any vehicle by selecting a make and/or model at GCBC’s Sales Stats home.

The tables visible after the jump are now sortable: click any heading in either table to rearrange vehicles by December 2012 U.S. sales volume or year-over-year percentage change. Click the headings at the far left to sort back to alphabetical order. It’s a small change, but one that makes the surveying of automotive sales data that much easier at GoodCarBadCar.net.